Total War: Rome II

 PC
  • Publisher: Sega
  • Release Date: Sep 2, 2013
User Score
4.4

Generally unfavorable reviews- based on 3974 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1,184 out of 3974
  2. Mixed: 613 out of 3974
  3. Negative: 2,177 out of 3974
Buy Now
Buy on

Review this game

  1. Your Score
    0 out of 10
    Rate this:
    • 10
    • 9
    • 8
    • 7
    • 6
    • 5
    • 4
    • 3
    • 2
    • 1
    • 0
    • 0
  1. Submit
  2. Check Spelling
view
per page
  1. fployd
    Sep 10, 2013
    0
    This is not really a playable game at release. It is a bug ridden, mess which Creative Assembly (the developers) expect you to pay a premium price to be a beta tester. Shame on you CA, SEGA, and Steam for not allowing refunds for people who were scammed into buying this, by CA's fake game-play footage and marketing hype
  2. danrose93
    Sep 10, 2013
    1
    First of all, cannot really run the game, downloaded patches but still terrible animations and FPS quality.
    Also the features in the game are poor, like squalor levels that really ruin your game play experience. also flaming torches that make rams and ladders pointless. Not a fun game, until future patches sort things out.
  3. rafaeldevoght
    Sep 10, 2013
    10
    I understand that for many players is certainly a very difficult game if it is not available in your language.
    Very detailed game! It is very well organized. Game runs very smoothly for me.
    Maybe little long wait after the "END TURN. Yet super realistic! Really well done.
  4. echo_whiskey
    Sep 10, 2013
    8
    20130910 I really don't understand the negative reviews at all. I've played the game daily since it was released and I'm still enjoying the heck out of it. I played STW, MTW, RTW, MTWII, ETW, NTW, STW2. This game really isn't any different from those games, just updated.

    I notice that people keep whining about the lack of a family tree; frankly I don't need a family full of halfwit    20130910 I really don't understand the negative reviews at all. I've played the game daily since it was released and I'm still enjoying the heck out of it. I played STW, MTW, RTW, MTWII, ETW, NTW, STW2. This game really isn't any different from those games, just updated.

    I notice that people keep whining about the lack of a family tree; frankly I don't need a family full of halfwit generals that get shunted to backwater posts where they can accumulate even more negative traits and breed an even larger army of halfwit children. Other people gripe about a lack of guard mode learn the controls, you can assign an AI behavior to duplicate that.

    The only gameplay thing that really bothers me is that a blockade by some other faction on a port city will keep me from invading the port city with my army. I read somewhere that this will be fixed, so I'm not terribly worried about it. Most of my actual complaints are so minor that I can't even think of them right now.

    All that said, you do need a pretty awesome computer to play this with a lot of maxed out eye-candy. I'm running an amd fx4 with 8gb and a gtx 470 and I'm playing with most features on low. I'm upgrading to an hd 7950 this week so I'll see if a little more video card grunt helps significantly or not and will see about updating my review with that information.

    One thing I hate about the internet is the expansion of the entitlement mentality regarding trivial stuff like games. It's difficult to believe that so many people are whining so loudly about this. Almost makes me wish that the internet could be rolled back.    … Expand
  5. Ekenbro
    Sep 10, 2013
    10
    This game is awesome, sure it has some bugs and some things needs to be fixed but overall it's very good. Most people who complain are people who don't know what the they are doing, I've seen people complaining they loose in battle and blame it on bugs.
  6. stu82r
    Sep 10, 2013
    5
    I love the epic historical battle experience provided by the Total War franchise, but as of now this one has seriously failed to deliver. After 15 game hours; the AI seems broken. It is neither challenging nor a threat on any difficulty. The graphics are not up to the standard that was displayed in development screenshots, and not what I expected from a 2013 TW release. There are some coolI love the epic historical battle experience provided by the Total War franchise, but as of now this one has seriously failed to deliver. After 15 game hours; the AI seems broken. It is neither challenging nor a threat on any difficulty. The graphics are not up to the standard that was displayed in development screenshots, and not what I expected from a 2013 TW release. There are some cool new features, the cinematic camera, the campaign map has improved, but nothing new that has drastically improved or expanded the series. Sure, previous Total War titles also had their own problems, but CA does not seem to be learning or improving from those problems, despite being aware of them. I expected a huge leap forward in all areas, instead it feels like a massive step backwards. What is left is a playable game that had potential, but it is filled with annoying bugs, poor design choices (the battles feel short and confusing, in part due to the horrible AI and a new capture the flag mechanic that makes no sense), and DLC that's simply a slap in the face. You want to play the Spartans as a faction? Please insert $8. The fans have once again paid the price, and it will once again be up to the fans and modders to rescue this mess. Did not pre-order, this is the last CA game I will buy. Not acceptable.
    If you want to buy it, wait a year and buy it with a DLC bundle on sale. Otherwise, get Shogan 2 as it is simply a better game.    … Expand
  7. Heimskringla91
    Sep 10, 2013
    0
    Absolutely horrendous. AI is utterly stupid and the addition of "capture the flag" greatly decreases the challenge of battles. Naval battles are disgustingly impossible due to glitches, they are a required auto-resolve. Pay an additional $8 in order to play This game is just completely broken. As an avid Total War since the first Shogun Total War, I am disgusted. I really hope I canAbsolutely horrendous. AI is utterly stupid and the addition of "capture the flag" greatly decreases the challenge of battles. Naval battles are disgustingly impossible due to glitches, they are a required auto-resolve. Pay an additional $8 in order to play This game is just completely broken. As an avid Total War since the first Shogun Total War, I am disgusted. I really hope I can get my money back for this. I'm pissed at the positive reviews this is receiving from critics. Quite the travesty.… Expand
  8. hazel1393
    Sep 10, 2013
    0
    What the hell... How could you sell a game like this and feel good about it? This game isn't ready to play at all. If you want to pay to play a pre Alpha... go ahead.
  9. petterb
    Sep 10, 2013
    2
    Waited a long time for this game and havent been this dissapointed since Orion 3. The strategic part of the game is way too simple. Technology is too simple. Diplomacy is too simple. AI is far from good enough. Too bad i didnt read the reviews before actually buying the game. Im a huge fan of the Total War series, but this is the series low.
  10. FanaticGamer89
    Sep 10, 2013
    3
    In 2004 Rome Total War was released. It was the first 3D game in the Total War series. I loved that game and still do. When I play Rome Total War I am taken to the classical era. For its time the graphics were fantastic, the UI was great and the AI was okay. Even though most effort was put into Rome, each culture felt unique and had their own variation of the UI, their own soundtracks andIn 2004 Rome Total War was released. It was the first 3D game in the Total War series. I loved that game and still do. When I play Rome Total War I am taken to the classical era. For its time the graphics were fantastic, the UI was great and the AI was okay. Even though most effort was put into Rome, each culture felt unique and had their own variation of the UI, their own soundtracks and their own strategies.

    Fast forward 9 years and Rome 2 has just been released, but how does it compare to its predecessor?

    Here is my honest opinion of Rome 2 with the good, the bad and the ugly. I honestly think Rome 2 could be the best game they made and I wanted to love it. Unfortunately, there are too many issues in the game currently.

    The Good

    - Rome 2 is pretty. Very pretty. The battlefields are more alive than ever and the cities look great even at medium high settings The units look better than some FPS games. Yes there are sometimes missing textures (will get to that soon) but it still looks fantastic.
    - Custom battles are fun. I love custom battles where I can play against another army. Yes the battles are shorter than in Rome 1 but I still thoroughly enjoy them.

    The Bad
    Things such as bugs, can be easily fixed.

    - The game is buggy. This is expected for a first day release, but there are lots of bugs. Missing textures, massive frame rate drops, unkillable admirals and dumb AI makes the game seem almost complete but not quite.
    - Campaign battles are boring. Remember I said custom battles are fun? Well the same isn’t for campaign battles. The AI seems to love spamming Mobs and Skirmishers both of which are easily disposed of. I’m finding myself winning every land battle with almost no losses. The campaign battles are more of a cat and mouse game than a battle.
    - Sea battles are confusing. I thought we could initiate boarding at sea, but all we can do is ram ships like a bunch of dodgem cars. Having two lines of ships individually ram each other is repetitive to say the least.
    - Friendly fire. Yes I understand friendly fire isn’t a bad thing, but it kills more of my own men than theirs. Like any good general I position my archers and skirmishers behind my lines, but they seem to kill more of my own men than theirs.
    - AI seems far too passive. They don’t attack with big armies, only tiny ones which always get repelled.

    The Ugly
    Game mechanics, cannot be easily taken out or fixed.

    - The UI is too modern. Rome 1’s UI made me feel like I was playing in the era, Rome 2’s UI is too modern and confusing. Icons are oddly placed and are too small and unit cards are too big.
    - Transport ships. Units can run into the water and make transport ships. While the idea is okay, transport ships are just too overpowered. Why make an expensive navy when you can make an army of militia and march them into the water? I remember in the original Rome an invasion from sea took a lot of planning, in Rome 2 that planning is non-existent as you can just march your army across the water, literally.
    - City management. In Rome 1 I loved managing cities. When I selected a city I was taken into that city, could see information about it clearly and had to choose carefully what to build. Rome 2’s city management is simple, too simple. You don’t even have to select a city to manage it, just a region. I don’t find myself getting attached to cities or caring much about them.
    - No family tree. I loved the family tree in Rome 1, it made me feel attached to my generals as they were family to me (literally). Rome 2 has done away with the family tree and I can raise an army under a general whenever I want. Because of this, I don’t care too much for my generals well being.
    - No seasons. Each turn is a year, which is very quick and seasons no longer exist. The campaign map doesn’t seem as alive anymore as the only thing changing is the size of cities. If they wanted the game to have less turns in it then why make the campaign map so big? I would rather a smaller map with seasons as opposed to a big map with yearly turns. Generals and agents also age and die too quickly now.
    - I don't like the use of the horse as a movement token. It seems too arcade like to me. I loved seeing the armies move across the land in Rome 1, but in Rome 2 they seem less threatening moving around as a guy on a horse.

    So there is my opinion of Rome 2 thus far. I understand that the bugs will be fixed with patches and the game will improve in time, but I can’t shake the feeling that there are too many disjointed game mechanics, which unlike bugs will remain in the game. Patching those mechanics will be like putting a band-aid on a broken arm. I wanted to love this game, I really did but it is currently too disjointed.

    Take your copy of Rome 1. Boot it up and remind yourselves of what made Rome Total War so great.    … Expand
  11. Yazilliclick
    Sep 10, 2013
    5
    Has a lot of potential but falls completely flat due to bugs, poor AI and questionable UI decisions. It's amazing that a developer would go backwards on so many items in a series that they've worked on for over a decade. Shogun 2 had pretty good UI for presenting information in a lot of cases, not perfect but OK; Rome 2 goes backwards with battle UI not presenting proper information, notHas a lot of potential but falls completely flat due to bugs, poor AI and questionable UI decisions. It's amazing that a developer would go backwards on so many items in a series that they've worked on for over a decade. Shogun 2 had pretty good UI for presenting information in a lot of cases, not perfect but OK; Rome 2 goes backwards with battle UI not presenting proper information, not showing skill trees, settlement details about order and such being hidden in mouse over popups etc... The AI is probably amongst the worst in past several games which is incomprehensible how they can go backwards. Performance is poor, turn wait times are very very long even on decent hardware. They've sped up combat both by making units run faster and making units die and break morale sooner which takes away the ability to really feel like your in command of the battle and turns it more into an arcade action game of trying to control units.

    Ultimately there's potential here for a decent game if they can patch this stuff out but at this point the developer deserves no respect for handing the game out in it's current state. These are all common and very apparent issues which would not have been missed in Q&A and thus were deliberately shipped with the game.    … Expand
  12. Victory
    Sep 10, 2013
    3
    It's fun but right now it's easily the worst total war game in the series. Absolutely horrendous optimisation, horrendous ai problems, horrendous ship combat.

    Conquering people and running an empire is always fun, and I have played 20 hours so far conquering people. Very rarely does a challenge actually occur and the bugs are ridiculous. It crashed because I merged armies. It    It's fun but right now it's easily the worst total war game in the series. Absolutely horrendous optimisation, horrendous ai problems, horrendous ship combat.

    Conquering people and running an empire is always fun, and I have played 20 hours so far conquering people. Very rarely does a challenge actually occur and the bugs are ridiculous.

    It crashed because I merged armies.
    It crashed because I tried to assassinate a general and attack with my stack at the same time.
    It crashed because blah blah blah.. the list goes on.

    The textures are pig ugly, on all settings with all tweeking. The frames per second is terribly optimised too.

    The game lacks atmosphere and doesn't really suck you in like shogun 2. all the cut scenes are pretty much cut, the music is just generic windy washy sounds with a few shouts thrown in. I already miss the victory song from Fall of the samurai and when you win in this you just get a shout.. oh great yeah.. give me some war drums or anything? Just lacks atmosphere.

    I wish I hadn't bothered, the sad thing is I expected this from the developers but I anticipated it would actually be an improvement over shogun 2 which is excellent..    … Expand
  13. gunnergoz
    Sep 10, 2013
    5
    CA's Rome 2 is a disappointing step down from what we were led to expect. It has the feel of an unfinished product released months too soon. TW Shogun 2 was better thought out and reflected some passion for the subject matter. This game gives the impression of a harried design team that was impacted more by budgetary constraints and corporate micro-management than by it's own creativityCA's Rome 2 is a disappointing step down from what we were led to expect. It has the feel of an unfinished product released months too soon. TW Shogun 2 was better thought out and reflected some passion for the subject matter. This game gives the impression of a harried design team that was impacted more by budgetary constraints and corporate micro-management than by it's own creativity and passion for the subject matter. Too much was sacrificed for too little gain, and what gain there is supposedly in tactical graphics is flawed in execution by poor optimization. The strategic map is so large as to make simulating the actual Roman Empire all but impossible, given the rates of movement on the strategic map. I was very much looking forward to this but now have serious doubts about the future of the TW franchise, given how it was handled with this opportunity.… Expand
  14. R3DSOXN4TION
    Sep 10, 2013
    5
    This game is only half made. Before the patch the glitches were game breaking. There is no unit balance elephants for the win if the A.I. even sends more the one or two army units to attack you at all. The A.I. is incompetent doing nothing even if your troops are standing right out in front of them. The game stripped many features and had many half baked features this game was clearlyThis game is only half made. Before the patch the glitches were game breaking. There is no unit balance elephants for the win if the A.I. even sends more the one or two army units to attack you at all. The A.I. is incompetent doing nothing even if your troops are standing right out in front of them. The game stripped many features and had many half baked features this game was clearly rushed. Even after all of that its still a Total War game and it is still enjoyable, but not $60 enjoyable. Either buy Shogun 2, a far superior Total War game, or wait until a Steam sale to get this. Or skip it all together you wouldn't miss much except for a broken game.… Expand
  15. blasb
    Sep 10, 2013
    0
    Very bad game compared to the other total war titles. Ai is Junk, UI is junk, Graphics are horrible and the campaign is just plain bad and isn't even needed since it doesn't bring anything to the game except bad experiences. The game runs slow and even my friend with the latest specs only get 15 fps. I think its time for CA to sit down and really re-evaluate how to make games... CustomersVery bad game compared to the other total war titles. Ai is Junk, UI is junk, Graphics are horrible and the campaign is just plain bad and isn't even needed since it doesn't bring anything to the game except bad experiences. The game runs slow and even my friend with the latest specs only get 15 fps. I think its time for CA to sit down and really re-evaluate how to make games... Customers wont pay you 50 euros for the next total war title if u make a joke of us like u did with this game, promising us a great experience(worst total war game ever).… Expand
  16. Hammerheart
    Sep 10, 2013
    0
    Is this beta or some kind of joke? Or maybe this game is targeted for 7yo console players?

    I am a huge fan of Total War since Shogun, but Rome 2 is a different game, much worse.

    We want strategy! We want tactics! We want well expanded economy, well expanded diplomacy,
    we want realistic battlefield.

    And what we get? Bugged, casual, arcade game for lots of money.

    DON'T BUY IT!
  17. zethar
    Sep 10, 2013
    5
    STOP trying to make it a casual game its a battle A LONG BATTLE GAME not a casual Rome 1 was better (111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111) just to fill the rest of the characters
  18. Stolas
    Sep 10, 2013
    4
    Feel that I paid £30 for an Alpha build, I saw better graphics, better AI and a different game entirely to what I'd bought in comparison to what I'd been shown on Rally Point and the Creative Assembly's many media releases.

    A solid concept and game has been crushed by some arcade features, a lack of a family tree, lack of optimization, lack of guard buttons, I could go on, really! The    Feel that I paid £30 for an Alpha build, I saw better graphics, better AI and a different game entirely to what I'd bought in comparison to what I'd been shown on Rally Point and the Creative Assembly's many media releases.

    A solid concept and game has been crushed by some arcade features, a lack of a family tree, lack of optimization, lack of guard buttons, I could go on, really! The AI is just laughable, I constantly get my fleets stuck in ports, I HAVE PLAYED FOR 22+ HOURS AND NOT YET EVEN BEEN DECLARED WAR ON!

    This game gets a 4/10 from someone who owns each Total war game, aside from Shogun 1. I'm unwilling to change my vote, as I believe that Creative Assembly have entirely let down their audience, despite promising to make weekly patches that isn't enough, we were sold a game that we were told was fully released, that promised so many things but didn't. (Just watch the Carthage Siege video, look at the screenshots of the units, etc)

    This game reminds me of the War Z entirely, yet a lot more dramatic. CA have an age old and loyal audience, and lied through their teeth all the way to release. So dissapointed.

    Also dissapointed in how the Critics have reviewed it, makes it awfully clear they play the game for about a half hour when not even knowing the franchise's history!    … Expand
  19. MetaAwesome
    Sep 10, 2013
    4
    The latest addition to the Total War series demonstrates some interesting new features, however the core gameplay takes a leap backwards.

    GOOD: Let's start with the positive. The campaign map is huge, there are many interesting units to recruit and there are a number of ways to customise provinces to suit your economic and military needs. The encyclopaedia includes short videos to    The latest addition to the Total War series demonstrates some interesting new features, however the core gameplay takes a leap backwards.

    GOOD:
    Let's start with the positive. The campaign map is huge, there are many interesting units to recruit and there are a number of ways to customise provinces to suit your economic and military needs. The encyclopaedia includes short videos to illustrate explanations, and the game is certainly more accessible to newer players of the series. The ability to set ambushes is improved upon, as the player now has the choice of building traps and reigning down fiery contraptions upon unsuspecting enemy troops.

    MIDDLE:
    With all this said, these features are merely the 'side order' of what Total War fans have come to love and enjoy. The 'meat' of Total War has always been the massively epic land battles, which unfortunately brings me to:

    BAD:
    After 20 hours playing as Carthage, Roman armies are attacking cities in what could only be described as a continuous stream of kamikaze warfare. Nearly all Roman armies and fleets encountered on the campaign map are made up of just one unit (not a very robust display of force for Rome, one of the world's first superpowers). This leads to the endless autoresolving of battles against an AI that is beyond idiotic, thus negating any sense of challenge and immersion.
    The battle AI is poor, particularly in siege battles where troops will stand motionless and capture the flag mechanics can be exploited. Considering that Creative Assembly have been developing Total War games for over a decade, one would expect an improvement rather than a marked disappointment.

    CONCLUSION:
    Total War Rome II feels like a city builder in which the concept of armies fighting one another was an afterthought that was 'thrown in' at the last moment. Large, epic battles should have been the strength of Rome II, not it's weakness.

    This review has not touched on any of the bugs encountered by players. There are loads of them.    … Expand
  20. curtisimo
    Sep 10, 2013
    3
    This game is nowhere near ready for release. I'm sick of pre-ordering supposed AAA games just to be given a beta stage product on release day.
    The stripped out features, enumerable graphics glitches, dumber than dirt AI and unplayable multiplayer make me forget any of the good aspects of this game.
  21. Rexxig
    Sep 10, 2013
    2
    Unoptimized even a high end PC cant run it more that 15 fps...
    **** AI.
    Buggy as hell.
    Alot of missing features....They should of not released it at this stage its a kick in the balls to all TW FANS
  22. thedawn
    Sep 10, 2013
    1
    Low fps, texture issues( black spots, and texture popping on the campaign map and battle map), bad AI way to passive one the campaign map, and just poorly coded, poor optimazation (shogun 2 was way better optimized), battles last like 2 or 3 minutes, they turn in huge blobs with no strategy needed, bad path finding, now for some reason routing enemys canot be runed down and be killed,Low fps, texture issues( black spots, and texture popping on the campaign map and battle map), bad AI way to passive one the campaign map, and just poorly coded, poor optimazation (shogun 2 was way better optimized), battles last like 2 or 3 minutes, they turn in huge blobs with no strategy needed, bad path finding, now for some reason routing enemys canot be runed down and be killed, there is no family tree, the different houses for Rome and Chartage make no inpackt on gameplay, the internal politicks system makes absolutely no inpackt on gameply i completely ignored it in my campagne, and nothing happened, in terms of some penalties or riots, i thought it will come to a civil war or something. Turns now last a year, making genearls die like flys, coop does not work, and crashes..............and much more what has been said here, and on the forums.

    The pre pre pre-alpha of the Cartage siege looks supperior to this!    … Expand
  23. Tinnesa
    Sep 10, 2013
    0
    If a game is unplayable, it's not even a game. It's a pile of ****.

    >Terrible UI that takes up 50% of my screen
    >THE FLAG!!! REMOVE IT
    >Broken naval battles
    >Navies now worthless
    >Terrible senate system
    >No family tree
    >Terrible skill upgrade system
    >A.I. worse than rome 1 total war.

    0/10. Entire franchise ruined. Good damn job.
  24. ge0s
    Sep 10, 2013
    4
    Its fairly easy to say Rome 2 may be the worst Total War game in the series as it stands right after release, but damn does it hurt. Even Empire didn't feel this bad for me and it's likely due to Empire's problems having to do more with AI and smaller technical details than the blatant problems appearing in Rome 2. Unfortunately most the TW fans have taken the PreOrder Free DLC hook lineIts fairly easy to say Rome 2 may be the worst Total War game in the series as it stands right after release, but damn does it hurt. Even Empire didn't feel this bad for me and it's likely due to Empire's problems having to do more with AI and smaller technical details than the blatant problems appearing in Rome 2. Unfortunately most the TW fans have taken the PreOrder Free DLC hook line and sinker, but now its our job to try and warn other gamers about this game as it stands. It's easy for gamers not familiar with the problems plaguing CA's AI flaws to buy the game out of nostalgia for the Rome:TW brand, which is easily the most famous and most know game in the TW series.

    The AI simply doesn't act competent in any way shape or form. Usually poor AI isn't a big deal for us TW fans, we've seen it before and usually upped the settings for a tougher challenge(not anymore). Most TW AI is at least smart enough to exploit flanks and run down archers in battle, while attacking major cities with larger stacks on the campaign map. Rome 2's AI however suffers from some of worst AI I've ever seen in a strategy game and worse it feels like CA has added deliberately gamey features to cover over its incomplete AI. Units will charge solo then turn tail before impact with a better unit, allowing your ranged units to sit behind and slowly pelt them to death. When a unit does decide to charge it'll send all of its units (including archers) into the front of Phalanx and Legionaries without trying to first use its ranged units to dwindle your numbers or exploit flanks along alternate routes. These are things you could see the AI doing to some extent in Shogun 2 on release, but are astonishingly absent from Rome 2. Formations, a staple of Ancient Roman period combat and often what won battles in Antiquity, completely dissolve into blobs when sent into combat; a far cry from the constant formation and impact units had in the original Rome:TW. Your well set phalanx and legion formations will collapse before impact (usually after throwing javelins), instead these units rely on puffed up numbers CA has put in to give those unit better strength, that was usually due to superior formation.

    On the Campaign map, AI appear to always try to max out the number of armies they have, resulting in many factions having a 3 or more small Armies of 2 or 3 units, with only 1 army with a medium size force but no where near the number of units it needs to pose a threat. I have managed to find one army in the entire game with a massive unit stack at about turn 30. It came from a random barbarian tribe north of Greece and proceeded to wreck Macedonia, burn Athens, grind Sparta to dust until I could finally see it take out Epirus. Due to the AI splitting its forces, this single fluke army carved out an empire until I smashed it with a Legion half its size, discovering it was nothing more than a bunch of tier 1 troops. After you destroy a faction its remaining armies will then suicide charge with single unit stacks, rather than group up and attack as one.

    Unit balance has become another major issue. Navies themselves are pointless (beyond later game catapult/ballista ships) while Land armies can instantly gain bigger ships, easily ram the smaller naval triremes and win most boarding actions due to land units having 200 men vs the 60 aboard naval units. That's if you can get the boarding function to work properly for yourself, leaving you forced to use ramming while the AI can pick and choose who to board, although I imagine this will be one of the first things fixed within a month. This makes the formidable Naval powers of Carthage and Athens feel no where near as formidable as they should be to take down. Elephants are far more over powered than they should and a single general unit with Elephants can destroy and entire army on its own. However the worst offender of poor balancing goes to the Roman dog units. These units have trainers which send out packs of dogs as shock troops, which historically were used to scare enemies and weaken them before the real Roman assault began. In Rome 2, however, you might as well build legions of just them as they can destroy units in seconds and stop an elephant or chariot charge dead in its tracks.

    Rome 2 saving grace is its streamlined map and city management which is really well designed and its fantastic to see your cities grow in size. The technology tree is also streamlined, but still well displaced and easy to understand. I also like the number of factions and the map itself, but waiting for all of them to take their turn takes forever and don't dare play a co-op campaign.

    Multiplayer is a huge step backwards however, as the great campaign style fight for territory multiplayer is completely gone, leaving only custom battles. The ability to also call on jump-in multiplayer battles while in campaign, first introduced in Napoleon:TW is also no where to be seen. A feature that could save the poor AI.    … Expand
  25. 4rdi
    Sep 10, 2013
    3
    This game ruined the franchise! There are so many bugs (a good part of those re-occurring and resulting crash to the desktop) that it is not even possible to list the here. Graphics looks nothing like in the trailer. User-interface is complicated. Game-play changes, particularly, duplicating abilities of all agents, makes the game boring and less strategic. There is no way to describe howThis game ruined the franchise! There are so many bugs (a good part of those re-occurring and resulting crash to the desktop) that it is not even possible to list the here. Graphics looks nothing like in the trailer. User-interface is complicated. Game-play changes, particularly, duplicating abilities of all agents, makes the game boring and less strategic. There is no way to describe how bad the battle AI is! People playing the game first time should look forward to beat the battle AI while 2-to-1 outnumbered. Experienced players can sometimes beat the odds of 4-to-1! Campaign AI throws many small armies, sometimes consisting of only one "suicide" unit, against you instead of using high stacks armies that actually have fighting power. Campaign AI is also very peaceful and passive altogether. Altogether, this game highly disappointing experience for any fan of the series.… Expand
  26. A7ibaba
    Sep 10, 2013
    0
    Game A.I is completely broken and i really don't see a point of playing Rome 2. You can conquer whole game in 3 hours because A.I don't react and it's like playing a chess with mentally retarded person who never played chess in whole life. Not to mention technical problems with units going through walls and ships running through land and missing or mixed texture on battlefield map.
  27. Roger77777
    Sep 10, 2013
    4
    Total War: Rome II has potential, but to use that it would have needed 1 or 2 month more development time. Sadly, at the moment (Patch 1) the game is not playable. It crashes ever ~5th turn, calculating the next turn takes 2 to 5 minutes and the game has really poor graphics (where Total War: Shogun 2 was running fine). And then there is the horrendous AI...
  28. Jazios
    Sep 10, 2013
    2
    Much like other fans I am disappointed in what should have been an amazing game based on what we experienced in Shogun 2.

    What we got is little more than an unfinished, streamlined mess that needs serious work before it can be considered worthy of the average players time and money. For the best experience with this game I highly recommend looking for fan mods that have already    Much like other fans I am disappointed in what should have been an amazing game based on what we experienced in Shogun 2.

    What we got is little more than an unfinished, streamlined mess that needs serious work before it can be considered worthy of the average players time and money.

    For the best experience with this game I highly recommend looking for fan mods that have already addressed the serious problems with the games AI and balancing. Said mods are the only reason I am giving this game a 2.    … Expand
  29. saladfork
    Sep 10, 2013
    0
    This game has no soul. I wanted to love this game. It could have so easily gotten a score of 10 from me with the littlest bit of effort. The game obviously has a lot of technical glitches that are disappointing and frustrating, but that is not the core problem. Although, some of the problems such as the A.I. should have been identified in the most basic levels of testing.

    The real    This game has no soul. I wanted to love this game. It could have so easily gotten a score of 10 from me with the littlest bit of effort. The game obviously has a lot of technical glitches that are disappointing and frustrating, but that is not the core problem. Although, some of the problems such as the A.I. should have been identified in the most basic levels of testing.

    The real problems are that Rome 2 is a step back in many directions. The land battles and naval battles are awful. The land battles problems are vast. They are way too quick, soldiers run way too fast, soldiers flee way too fast and the whole thing is a damn mess. Soldiers do not even attempt to stay in any kind of formation, even in the beginning. They just form a mosh pit immediately after contact, even if its only 2 units. You cannot even see the combat animations as the soldiers float around and die randomly. Also, soldiers from the enemy can just run straight through your formations, which looks ridiculous. Naval battles are a joke, as land armies are more powerful than naval armies. What is the point of having weak naval ships when I can have land units that double as superior naval vessels.

    The campaign A.I. is so goofy that I cannot tell you if the campaign map works. I could talk forever about how much the battles suck, the campaign sucks, the music sucks, the design decisions suck, but I'm getting too depressed writing this review. I was so excited for this game!!! I bought a new monitor and video card just for this game! CA really misrepresented this game in the previews such as the battle for Carthage. They had the biggest budget for any total war game, but where the hell did it go? Many of us pre-ordered based on the belief that this game would be an improvement, not a de-evolution of the franchise. We also pre-ordered based on what CA told us the game would be, which it is not.

    I am 31 and married with 2 kids. The Total War series are some of the few games I still play due to time constraints. I am not asking for much, but they could not even provide me with a game that is just as good as the previous one (Shogun 2), instead they went way backwards.    … Expand
  30. Ioannis
    Sep 10, 2013
    0
    I cannot believe the critics that give this game a great score. This game is absolutely broken, you spend more time waiting for the next turn than actually playing, the A.I. in battles is the worst i have ever seen, naval battles don't even work and the game has been completely streamlined (aka stupified) which makes it super easy giving anyone who plays it no challenge whatsoever.
    The    I cannot believe the critics that give this game a great score. This game is absolutely broken, you spend more time waiting for the next turn than actually playing, the A.I. in battles is the worst i have ever seen, naval battles don't even work and the game has been completely streamlined (aka stupified) which makes it super easy giving anyone who plays it no challenge whatsoever.
    The critics that give this game a high score have obviously not played the game at all, and should really think about a career change, because they are a cancer to people who actually read reviews before buying a game.    … Expand
  31. HelterSkelter
    Sep 10, 2013
    3
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Quote:"Rome II is a testament to all that is great about PC gaming and should be a must buy for all its followers"

    Thoughts:" NO THAT IS A FREAKIN LIE!!!"

    I just cant understand what this game has done to all my hopes and expectations maybe it was hyped too much but still Rome 2 goes back 2 steps in the franchise where Shogun was 2 steps ahead.

    I cannot believe the professional review score ..still it might be a good/ok game it DOES NOT deserve a    … Expand
  32. chellboy
    Sep 10, 2013
    3
    Im not sure what they are thinking! They released the game way to soon when fans would have understood. It is dumb down and streamlined way too hard. So many bad design decisions make it depressing to play this "Total War" game
  33. I_love_CA
    Sep 10, 2013
    2
    It's quite funny how CA games are more bugged with every new release, while modders get less and less opportunity to make these alphas playable. Hilarious.

    But no problem people will still buy pre-orders, otherwise they will be given more castrated product, aka "buy it now or we don't give you 3 factions, LUDICROUS.
  34. eNRGy
    Sep 10, 2013
    9
    Pro:
    Fantastic graphics on high end gaming rigs
    The best battles of the series The best strategy layer of the series Addictive, fun, accessible Con: AI is terrible on the strategy layer (Bugged?) It runs its cities into the ground and splits its units into lots of tiny stacks. I'm playing on normal and haven't tried the higher difficulties yet. AI is poor on the battlefield. I    Pro:
    Fantastic graphics on high end gaming rigs
    The best battles of the series
    The best strategy layer of the series
    Addictive, fun, accessible

    Con:
    AI is terrible on the strategy layer (Bugged?) It runs its cities into the ground and splits its units into lots of tiny stacks. I'm playing on normal and haven't tried the higher difficulties yet.
    AI is poor on the battlefield. I don't mind this so much because I'm not very good and I enjoy having the opportunity to out manoeuvre someone.
    Battle graphics are worse than recent games in the series on low-mid PCs. But at least the game works smoothly and very playable on the lowest specs.

    Overall the pros outweigh the cons to such an extreme degree that I have no hesitation giving this 9/10 and would go to 10/10 if they can improve the AI's strategy efforts.    … Expand
  35. RogerWilco2099
    Sep 10, 2013
    1
    What should have been a massive improvement has turned into a massive disaster All the improvements that were promised and boasted about simply don't exist, in fact they have been streamlined to the point its unplayable. There are some great ideas and nice features but these are overshadowed massively by everything that is wrong. The epic battles of old are gone. Small skirishes that lastWhat should have been a massive improvement has turned into a massive disaster All the improvements that were promised and boasted about simply don't exist, in fact they have been streamlined to the point its unplayable. There are some great ideas and nice features but these are overshadowed massively by everything that is wrong. The epic battles of old are gone. Small skirishes that last 3 minutes are now the norm. Graphic issues and screen tears are constant. The game speed and sense of urgency in conflicts has been increased way to fast, the devs seemed to have got lost their direction. In its current state. Not only is the game current price not worth it in its current state, the devs have the nerve to offer day one DLC to content that should clearly have been included. Cashing in yet again. In addition this game has a bigger budget then any other Rome game and I have no idea where its gone. I swear they accidentally released the Pre-Alpha build, its scary how wrong things have gone. The sad truth is that even with numerous patches, the new direction with combat and its style will mean this series will no longer what it will be. The fact the many numerous patches will be needed to make this playable is quite frankly pathetic. Shameful display!… Expand
  36. sarrow
    Sep 10, 2013
    0
    For new players, if you can deal with illogical menus, horrid ai, imbalanced units, confusing unit cards, a perplexing government system, combined with a severe lack of in-game help (despite the encyclopedia and numerous tips options), not to mention the terrible optimisation, glitches and bugs there's something for you to enjoy here.

    For total war vets, guys, just wait for the modders    For new players, if you can deal with illogical menus, horrid ai, imbalanced units, confusing unit cards, a perplexing government system, combined with a severe lack of in-game help (despite the encyclopedia and numerous tips options), not to mention the terrible optimisation, glitches and bugs there's something for you to enjoy here.

    For total war vets, guys, just wait for the modders to fix the game. It will ruin years of fond memories and make you cry real man tears.    … Expand
  37. Aspirinix
    Sep 10, 2013
    0
    As a Total War veteran i urge those who haven't buy this game to wait, maybe a month, or 6 months, or a year, or better until they announce release of a new Total War game, so then you can buy Rome 2 on sale, otherwise you will be just wasting your money.

    Maybe next Total War game will be much, much, much better, provided that Creative Assembly survives this disaster.

    Shameful display CA
  38. Megatanis
    Sep 10, 2013
    1
    eheheh reviews average score: 8.1
    user average score: 4.0
    I hope this is the final word on the "are official reviewers biased or are they not" issue. Rome total war 2 on release is unplayable, simple as that. I am using a 2.7ghz dual core, 4gb ram and 1gb video card (specified RECOMENDED requirements on the box, not minimum) at medium graphics (options are from low to ultra high,    eheheh reviews average score: 8.1
    user average score: 4.0
    I hope this is the final word on the "are official reviewers biased or are they not" issue.
    Rome total war 2 on release is unplayable, simple as that. I am using a 2.7ghz dual core, 4gb ram and 1gb video card (specified RECOMENDED requirements on the box, not minimum) at medium graphics (options are from low to ultra high, medium is 2/5). Loading times are unbearable. Whole thing is glitchy as hell, on this same rig I could play Shogun 2 at decent graphics and reasonable loading times.
    Really, do they test this stuff before release, or do they think we all have a 2000$ last gen pc?
    So, not able to judge game (the few things I saw are nothing special compared to previous iterations) since it is literally unplayable.
    Needless to say I play total war series since shogun 1..oh well I guess I'll have to find a better job so I can afford a rig that can run RTW2.
    I'll give it a 1 because of the latin quote at the end of the cool (but nothing special) intro     … Expand
  39. Dimppa
    Sep 10, 2013
    10
    i have watched angry review and several other who tell about bugs and other stuff. i have seen only 6 times any of those things that they mainly complain. AI most of the time good on hard (better than any before) but still it could be better. I don't know did CA think that i should get only good copy

    (28h played) i know some think that's too little but after hundreds and hundreds of    i have watched angry review and several other who tell about bugs and other stuff. i have seen only 6 times any of those things that they mainly complain. AI most of the time good on hard (better than any before) but still it could be better. I don't know did CA think that i should get only good copy

    (28h played) i know some think that's too little but after hundreds and hundreds of hours Rome, Medi II, Empire, Shogun II i have good idea what total war is. i just hope that things won't just jump in.
    i will play more and if i find more i will lower of higher this review if it's possible.

    P.S flags suck!

    i bit over rate due to ppl are shock do to broken AI i would have given it 7 at correct status    … Expand
  40. AznaktaX
    Sep 10, 2013
    3
    The game is broken, with glitches, graphical issues, and a horrendous AI.

    In its current state, I can't possibly buy this or even recommend it to anyone else. The only reason I don't give it a lower score than 3/10 is because it does have potential but it is totally overshadowed by its flaws. As for Sega....how dare you? How dare you abuse the fans' trust and bring out this    The game is broken, with glitches, graphical issues, and a horrendous AI.

    In its current state, I can't possibly buy this or even recommend it to anyone else.

    The only reason I don't give it a lower score than 3/10 is because it does have potential but it is totally overshadowed by its flaws.

    As for Sega....how dare you?

    How dare you abuse the fans' trust and bring out this game in its current extremely buggy state?

    I'm very disappointed!!

    Do not buy this!!

    Not at least until they fix the bugs.    … Expand
  41. TheUnbeholden
    Sep 10, 2013
    2
    Total War Shogun 2 was such a massive improvement... and now this? This is a disgrace to the Total War series... it's got strip away features, it's buggy to hell and back, AI are the most retarded they have ever been before, the map AI will almost never attack you.. and even when they do they only throw tiny groups of enemies at you. Never a big group. Enemies in game will stand there andTotal War Shogun 2 was such a massive improvement... and now this? This is a disgrace to the Total War series... it's got strip away features, it's buggy to hell and back, AI are the most retarded they have ever been before, the map AI will almost never attack you.. and even when they do they only throw tiny groups of enemies at you. Never a big group. Enemies in game will stand there and stare at you... without making any movements. Those god damn flags.. the god damn flags in a open field.. Oh man The UI in game is a terrible (except for the map screen). The graphics are glitchy and very average.
    Looks like a 2005 game. The videos showing how good the game look? Fake. Nobody has been able to get the game to look as good as some of the trailer showcased video footage of this game. Somebody up big time. This looks like a Alpha! They are selling a bloody alpha version for lots of money? Who the hell was in charge of this? It's a travesty. Long time fans are royally pissed off with good reason.

    +Cinematic cam
    +tooltips help you focus on the gameplay rather than being lost clicking stuff.
    +World Map
    +Province have capitals
    -Apart from tooltips, the UI is very limited.
    -AI are totally broken.
    -No challenge.
    -Graphics are bland.
    **** multiplayer, it's barebones 2 player gameplay. Nothing else.
    -Family trees have been stripped away, diplomacy, religion/politics & skill trees are worse than before.
    -Naval battles are plain screwed. The game automatically spawns ships when you send units to the sea, which are more powerful than actual naval ships. No fire at will or guard mode, no formations.
    -Your units refuse to go down walls
    -Most cinematics are gone.
    -No context sensitive battle speeches.    … Expand
  42. calmon
    Sep 10, 2013
    0
    AI is for me an absolute showstopper.

    There is NO challenge for me in Mid/Lategame. AI is not able to handle the game.

    Rome 2 official Reviewers should take more time testing a game. They should test not just the early steps because when the game go on the problems start poping up all over.
  43. zollyftn
    Sep 10, 2013
    0
    Unfinished game with many core features not working. Terrible performance even on high end PCs with normal details settings. Playing game is frustrating due to many technical problems(stuttering campaign map, bad AI, tons of bugs).

    Buy this game only when it is heavily patched and on discount one-two year after the release date.
  44. Blankolf
    Sep 10, 2013
    0
    This game is just zero how can this: http://www.pictureshack.us/images/57736_Carthage_A_B_F.jpg happen on a triple AAA game like Total war series game like Rome II?

    The game has the most horrible AI I have witness in my veterany as a gamer, jesus, this is no longer a battle simulator but a game to laugh at. And the reason I am giving zero, is because from shogun 2 this game looks    This game is just zero how can this: http://www.pictureshack.us/images/57736_Carthage_A_B_F.jpg happen on a triple AAA game like Total war series game like Rome II?

    The game has the most horrible AI I have witness in my veterany as a gamer, jesus, this is no longer a battle simulator but a game to laugh at.

    And the reason I am giving zero, is because from shogun 2 this game looks like it was released BEFORE!! How can that possibly happen with 40% more budget than any other TOTAL WAR games!?!? Did they spent on Las Vegas or something?

    This Total War: Rome II deserves nothing more than a zero, all apologits are crying out in defense of the game, but if you trully love this series like I do, you would criticise so this never happens again... And sadly there's no patch that can fix:

    - Graphical downgrade (Seems like thrown the maps from alpha and beta to the bing or something)
    - It's not erratic A.I., it's USELESS A.I., they do nothing but sh*t on the battlefield.
    - A.I. again, on Campaign is so passive... Even on Legendary... My God!
    - Naval Battle, anyone who has played this knows these two words give them the shivers of the ammount of times they tried to do them and end up razed by a single fisherman ship simply because your troops won't listen to you.

    Seriously I love this series, but this is pre-alpha testing, since the alpha and beta images are far more supperior than the actual game, wtf did they do to the skins and maps they had?    … Expand
  45. ymakushin
    Sep 10, 2013
    6
    I was very excited for this game as many were, but after finishing the main campaign things have changed.
    So here are a couple of things wrong:
    AI doesn't care about anything. It either goes for the flag behind you even in retreat or doesn't even attack. The graphics are horrible in today's standards. Lots of cool features were stripped out. Fps drops Though despite all those    I was very excited for this game as many were, but after finishing the main campaign things have changed.
    So here are a couple of things wrong:

    AI doesn't care about anything. It either goes for the flag behind you even in retreat or doesn't even attack.
    The graphics are horrible in today's standards.
    Lots of cool features were stripped out.
    Fps drops

    Though despite all those features I quite enjoyed the game so from me it gets a 6/10.    … Expand
  46. Liberalis1
    Sep 10, 2013
    4
    Cons: -Really bad AI.
    -Super fast battles (on average 3min...)
    -No family tree. -Broken siege battles. -All armies can magically transform into fleets. -Badly optimized game. -No unit numbers displayed on unit cards. -Campaign AI too weak. -Naval battles broken. -Flaming javelins wtf! (do they have lighters on them ?) -No role-play. -Generals acquire too quickly traits, and    Cons: -Really bad AI.
    -Super fast battles (on average 3min...)
    -No family tree.
    -Broken siege battles.
    -All armies can magically transform into fleets.
    -Badly optimized game.
    -No unit numbers displayed on unit cards.
    -Campaign AI too weak.
    -Naval battles broken.
    -Flaming javelins wtf! (do they have lighters on them ?)
    -No role-play.
    -Generals acquire too quickly traits, and always the same ones... (pain in the behind)
    -Too many in-battle special-options for units. (most are irrelevant)
    -Political systems are useless and badly integrated !!!!
    -Broken Multi-player Campaign.
    -Not enough open field battles.
    -Useless capture points that hinder the AI from having an actual battle.
    -No walls for non-capital cities.
    -Over-powered elephants.
    -Almost no cinematics (small in-game videos).
    -No historical event messages.
    -AI turns take forever.
    -Phalanxes not used by AI (or rarely) .
    -No out of the box 40 unit stacks on the campaign map.
    -Unclear trait/skill-tree.
    -Un-immersive music.
    -No battle speeches.
    -Impossible to build Colosseum & Circus Maximus in the same city...
    -Disappearing rebellions on the campaign map (slave revolts)
    -Marian reforms can be researched and acquired too early in the campaign.

    Pros: -Really big map and mostly well done.
    -Lots of units.
    -Lots of factions.
    -Very nice textures and details.
    -Being able to choose the generals bodyguard unit.
    -Province/region system.
    -Campaign User-Interface.
    -Diplomacy/resource maps.
    -War targets (when they work).    … Expand
  47. Dralord
    Sep 10, 2013
    5
    I'm disappointed by Rome 2. This game should have been better than Rome 1 but only the battle map and graphics has been improved the rest is worse.

    -There is a stone age Multiplayer -Almost no city management -No family tree and ruler information -Very hard diplomacy -Now we have land AND naval army(better than the navy we recruit) -And very confusing units cards system. I    I'm disappointed by Rome 2. This game should have been better than Rome 1 but only the battle map and graphics has been improved the rest is worse.

    -There is a stone age Multiplayer
    -Almost no city management
    -No family tree and ruler information
    -Very hard diplomacy
    -Now we have land AND naval army(better than the navy we recruit)
    -And very confusing units cards system.

    I suppose that I'll get back on Rome 1 after 1 or 2 more try on Rome 2 campaingn    … Expand
  48. macedonian21
    Sep 10, 2013
    5
    tbh i never have high expectations from a game as I know it will have problems anyway...but I hate the fact that I pre-order a game for the first time and get to play a more beta looking version of the game...hell I didn't even get the culture pack because I have to pay 7 for it...WTF?...don't get me wrong...the game underneath is good and fun for me maybe because I know how to find thetbh i never have high expectations from a game as I know it will have problems anyway...but I hate the fact that I pre-order a game for the first time and get to play a more beta looking version of the game...hell I didn't even get the culture pack because I have to pay 7 for it...WTF?...don't get me wrong...the game underneath is good and fun for me maybe because I know how to find the good part in everything sometimes but you said you had a 40% bigger budget for this game than for any other TW game before...what did you do with those money? gave it to reviewers so that they could give you a good ratting so on release you will sell a lot of copies?...first of all the publisher for rushing the game...and CA for giving us an unfinished game without even telling us about the current state of the game...wtf CA next time test the game yourselves before releasing...… Expand
  49. AjaX
    Sep 10, 2013
    4
    I have been a HUGE fan of the total war series since the release of the original Rome: Total War, it is easily one of my favourite games of all time and I have spent probably over 1000 hours playing it over the years and over the past few months I had been playing a mod called Roma Surrectum 2 to keep me busy up until the launch of Rome 2, after 17 hours of playing the new release, I amI have been a HUGE fan of the total war series since the release of the original Rome: Total War, it is easily one of my favourite games of all time and I have spent probably over 1000 hours playing it over the years and over the past few months I had been playing a mod called Roma Surrectum 2 to keep me busy up until the launch of Rome 2, after 17 hours of playing the new release, I am going back to playing Roma Surrectum 2. Rome 2 is terrible, I started off on a legendary campaign with Rome and was able to steam roll through Italy, Greece, North Africa, Spain, most of Europe and completely wipe Egypt out of the game with ease, the AI is a joke and offered no challenge what so ever. My longest battle was only 7 minutes and 35 seconds long! This game has great potential but they HAVE to fix the AI ASAP! its the worst I have seen in any total war game, I would gladly go back to playing Empire instead of this. Also, this game does not run smoothly at all, I have a pretty beefy rig and run most games on ultra but for some reason I have to run this game on normal settings and still only barely get 30 fps and it has crashed several times in the 17 hours that I have played it. It is an obviously unfinished game and has many more months to go until it is going to be enjoyable to play so DON'T BUY IT YET! After 17 hours I am done with it and like I said am going back to a MOD for the original Rome HAHA.....Unbelievable...… Expand
  50. Lord_Slop
    Sep 9, 2013
    6
    I pre-purchased the game, first pre-purchase for me ever. I'm also an old TW player since the days of Rome, started in 2004 more or less.

    The game has one keyword, potential. There are a lot of possibilities for the game, but they're mostly not working or buggy. Pros: 1. Very nicely made campaign map overall. 2. The new province system is an improvement. 3. Unit roster from the    I pre-purchased the game, first pre-purchase for me ever. I'm also an old TW player since the days of Rome, started in 2004 more or less.

    The game has one keyword, potential. There are a lot of possibilities for the game, but they're mostly not working or buggy.

    Pros:
    1. Very nicely made campaign map overall.
    2. The new province system is an improvement.
    3. Unit roster from the few factions I've played seems diversified.
    4. Replayability is high, given the number of playable factions.
    5. The limit on the number of armies and agents you can field depending on your empire's size adds a lot of depth and strategic planning to the game.

    Cons:
    1. Waiting time between turns is simply too long, starts with around 30 seconds at the start of the campaign and goes as far as 3 or 4 minutes around turn 50 as more of the map is revealed (While disabling the show AI movements option).
    2. Naval battles are broken, the units won't obey commands when told to board unless you babysit them and re-issue the command, even then it might not work.
    3. Land battles turn into a brawl once the initial cross fire is over and it's down to melee. The units seem to congregate in the center losing any semblance of being anything than angry mobs fighting it outside a tavern.
    4. The game is laggy, both on the strategic and battle views.
    5. Diplomacy needs improvement, they won't agree to most negotiations (Including trade agreements) unless you're way stronger than the AI faction you're negotiating with.
    6. Region resources don't add any bonuses as far as I could tell,
    7. Land armies can traverse oceans by turning into transports, which makes fleets rudimentary if not obsolete.
    8. Campaign AI is too passive, not to mention that the game seems to be cheating, even on easy, I've seen one province factions fielding 3 full stacks, regardless of the impact of upkeep.

    So, overall, the game has a lot of options to explore, provided they patch up the errors. Given proper patching and fixes, the game could be brilliant. But in its current state, it's nothing really special.    … Expand
  51. Finfid
    Sep 9, 2013
    0
    Avoid this game like the plague. Wait a few months, and then check back with the community at large to see if the issues have been fixed. As it stands right now, the game is unplayable, unless you like the misery of endless bugs and missing features. The Creative Assembly has failed in an epic fashion this time.
  52. kcanon112
    Sep 9, 2013
    0
    Most people who rate this highly usually say "it's good but" this game is broken from the graphics to the AI, and what's worse is the optimization meaning it'll be difficult to get a good FPS even on good rigs.
  53. Deathmarch
    Sep 9, 2013
    3
    Everything good in Shogun2 was ripped out of Rome2
    NO family trees, political part makes no sense and has little impact on the game
    They should rename it Total Siege War, because you'll never be attack by ai in field 99% of your battle will be defending a city or sieging one. gone are agent videos and agent diversity is gone apart form a few trait they do that same thing Generals    Everything good in Shogun2 was ripped out of Rome2
    NO family trees, political part makes no sense and has little impact on the game
    They should rename it Total Siege War, because you'll never be attack by ai in field
    99% of your battle will be defending a city or sieging one.
    gone are agent videos and agent diversity is gone apart form a few trait they do that same thing
    Generals are generic you'll careless if they die cause the game will generate a new one for you.
    ALL the battlefield feature have been gutted units don't hold formation, no guard mode, cant toggle skirmish for melee units with javelin. AI routes with in minutes if the ai allows them to engage in combat at all ,they will usually just stand there taking arrows to the face, OH yea Loose formation is gone too.
    Dumbed Down Too far    … Expand
  54. westerntuna
    Sep 9, 2013
    0
    After 2 hours of play, I loved the game. 12 hours in, it's obvious how broken and incomplete the game is.

    No unit collision. Giant formations and unique unit animations mean absolutely nothing. Battles end up being giant brawls where you can't see what's happening. Battles rely not on actually winning the game, but capturing a flag. 100 men can defeat 3000 just by getting to the flag    After 2 hours of play, I loved the game. 12 hours in, it's obvious how broken and incomplete the game is.

    No unit collision. Giant formations and unique unit animations mean absolutely nothing. Battles end up being giant brawls where you can't see what's happening. Battles rely not on actually winning the game, but capturing a flag. 100 men can defeat 3000 just by getting to the flag first. Terrain and tactics mean nothing. Just the flag.

    End your turn? Get ready for a 5 minute wait for all the other factions to go next, even with AI moves turned off. AI even on Legendary don't start wars. Heck, I had AI at war with me offer trade agreements!
    In battle, AI will IGNORE your army, even if it means running through it, and go straight for the flag.

    Game is filled with bugs. Ships WILL get caught on the smallest rock, disabling the ship's AI. If a single person is still unloading or stuck on a ship or siege engine, the entire unit cannot be used. Co-Op campaign is unplayable due to dsync, and multiplayer crashes when I tried playing with friends.

    I played this a week after release. Even after several patches, it's still broken.

    If you skip this game, you won't be missing anything. Go back to Shogun 2. Or at least don't buy this until it goes on a really steep sale.    … Expand
  55. Drowsy
    Sep 9, 2013
    0
    Broken, incomplete. Never been this disappointed with a TW game before. I hope they can fix everything but i highly doubt it. Stay away from this one for now.
  56. Adolphobia
    Sep 9, 2013
    0
    Fix this crap... bad AI, no spy cut scenes, all streamlined, no family tree... i can't believe they just took my money, this is nothing like the game that was advertised, after shogun 2 how do they do this to us... i want my money back, il never buy another Total War game...
  57. zedfox95
    Sep 9, 2013
    2
    A poorly adorned skeleton of what could have been. Sadly, I think SEGA pressured CA to push this game out before it was ready. Maybe they even pressured them to add flags in open-field battles, or magic abilities too.

    Honestly, I was expecting some bugs, maybe performance issues. But I'm not exactly sure the issues this game has can be fixed without redoing some parts of the game entirely.
  58. rogerxing0318
    Sep 9, 2013
    1
    I'm pretty sure this game is unplayable, I don't understand how the critic reviews are so high, are they getting bribed or something??
    the game should be a pre-alpha.
  59. Fudaman
    Sep 9, 2013
    4
    AI is broken, naval battles are useless and there are plenty of bugs to go around. The general skill tree is a step down from shogun. I put 10 hours into this...wait a month before considering to buy. The critic reviews have been obviously paid off by sega.
  60. Monlex
    Sep 9, 2013
    2
    Looks good at a first glance that's the positive thing one can say about Total War Rome 2 by Creative Assembly and Sega.
    Campaign AI (CAI) is broken, it manages to starve its own population, it cant attack in any reasonable manner as it will only send small stacks of units to attack. I actually had the CAI declare War against me once so at least i now know its possible, out of 40h+ Game    Looks good at a first glance that's the positive thing one can say about Total War Rome 2 by Creative Assembly and Sega.
    Campaign AI (CAI) is broken, it manages to starve its own population, it cant attack in any reasonable manner as it will only send small stacks of units to attack. I actually had the CAI declare War against me once so at least i now know its possible, out of 40h+ Game play that is obviously close to never but heck it did happen, once. I could make a long list of faults but its not worth it.
    Diplomacy is, as its traditional in any Total War game, broken.
    The Battle AI (BAI) is broken, again one could make a long list of what exactly is broken but its not worth it.
    The Graphical quality is good on the Campaign map and the Battle map's villages and towns look ok. The rest is a step back from the last iteration of the Total War games, that's kind of an achievement considering they had a 40% bigger budget.
    I was a fan of the Total War Games from Shogun's first release day and i did get them all, i am done i wont pay for anything from CA or Sega again. I did and do this with many company's by now and i am sad that another of my favorite series is gone for me.    … Expand
  61. ElfTheHunter
    Sep 9, 2013
    8
    While it definitely has some small bugs, I think the game is pretty great. Last TW game I played was Medieval 2, and I find the UI very much improved, the graphics are staggering. My main complaints would be that your generals do not live long enough (would prefer 4 turns per year lucky there's mods). I did think combat was better in Medieval 2, but I am really impressed with theWhile it definitely has some small bugs, I think the game is pretty great. Last TW game I played was Medieval 2, and I find the UI very much improved, the graphics are staggering. My main complaints would be that your generals do not live long enough (would prefer 4 turns per year lucky there's mods). I did think combat was better in Medieval 2, but I am really impressed with the campaign in this one. I'm in the middle of a Very Hard campaign (61 hrs) but am planning to start over on Legendary because I could use some extra difficulty (the AI is a little weak, but I remember it being weak in Med2 as well). I recommend the game, though apparently lots of folk are having trouble with it.… Expand
  62. Yyrkroon
    Sep 9, 2013
    5
    Long time TW fan going back to Shogun (original). Rome II is apparently a bridge too far. Redeveloped AI is incredibly passive in the campaign I suspect it isn't able to cope with the new campaign features. Battle AI is incredibly easy. Just isn't fun.
  63. MrBigBoss
    Sep 9, 2013
    0
    As a long time fan of the series, I want to write a quality review, but I can't. This game is BROKEN. It makes me sick to see critics giving this game 100. That is simply dishonest and insulting to the gaming community. Releasing a game in this condition is simply inexcusable.
  64. Dasfencen
    Sep 9, 2013
    0
    This game is pathetic, it feels like creative assembly had nothing to do with the development, they hired somebody else to do this crap…, every known feature common to the series is lost, doesn´t feel like a total war game.

    Resuming some of the messed up features: First, AI: Retarded, both in campaign map and battle map. In the campaign map is stupid because it does nothing, stays    This game is pathetic, it feels like creative assembly had nothing to do with the development, they hired somebody else to do this crap…, every known feature common to the series is lost, doesn´t feel like a total war game.

    Resuming some of the messed up features:

    First, AI:
    Retarded, both in campaign map and battle map. In the campaign map is stupid because it does nothing, stays still waiting for you to destroy them. In battle they are stupid because they do stupid thing or they do nothing as well…, like in mi last battle when I was able to occupy a city without fighting at all…, none died. I separated my army in two, while the AI was worried with one part the army I was able to walk mi way through the back of the city and grab the wining point and win, with no opposition at all. They tried to do something but they couldn´t reach me, they get lost in their own city.

    Second, Multiplayer:
    Too much time doing nothing, there are a lot more factions than previous games so I believe is ok waiting for them to resolve, is part of the business, but why they take much longer in multiplayer campaign?. The big problem with multiplayer is that you can´t do almost nothing while your friend is playing his turn, you can´t choose what to build or queue units, this could be done in previous games like napoleon, shogun and fall of the samurai. Here you must take note of all the things you must do in order to do them as quick as you can when your turn comes, before your friend gets angry of doing nothing and says, enough. We both quit in turn 4, with only a few cities to run, we saw it coming... If that was annoying, imagine having 30 or more regions each, one player waiting doing NOTHING, and the other one doing what he could have done while the other one was playing his turn.

    Forth, Battles:
    Units routs out to quickly, move to fast, seem to be immune to fatigue, ridiculous button press abilities: we have some of this in shogun and fall of the samurai but this is abusive. They say: “we want to take out some of the micro management”, they took it out from the campaign map and put it into the battle map.
    I like generation of maps based on campaign map, but I´ve seen some cities that looked essentially the same...

    Fifth and Last, Campaign Map:
    No seasons, looks pretty bad compared to previous campaign maps, probably because it´s made with the battle map engine I don’t know. It´s bigger but armies seem to walk much further than previous games so that makes it smaller than it looks. Nothing happens after taking a region with a wonder on it, no screen, nothing.

    Me: never pre ordering again.
    You: don´t buy it, wait for Christmas!!!    … Expand
  65. AGrrrr
    Sep 9, 2013
    8
    Many negative user reviews are coming out about this game and I would like to give a less emotional review. Rome 2 feels similar to Shogun 2 with more realistic battle engagements than in past total war games. Many elements of the original Rome have been updated to be more streamlined and easier to understand (which has been the source of many negative reviews). If you are a fan of theMany negative user reviews are coming out about this game and I would like to give a less emotional review. Rome 2 feels similar to Shogun 2 with more realistic battle engagements than in past total war games. Many elements of the original Rome have been updated to be more streamlined and easier to understand (which has been the source of many negative reviews). If you are a fan of the Total War series then you might not be happy with some of the changes they have made. However, if you are new to the series, you will be blown away by how good it is.

    Creative Assembly had set the bar really high with the original release of Rome. They don't quite live up to the expectations but Rome 2 is still a great game.    … Expand
  66. Efix484
    Sep 9, 2013
    4
    Horrible UI.
    AI is brain dead
    Poorly optimized. Navy is useless (Normal troops can spawn magical boats) No more guard button. Units don't fight in formation (Phalanx have to brake to attack etc) Stupid magical powers (flaming javelins etc) Arcadey useless effects (Glowing light on everything) Unit card that covers half my screen. (5 times bigger then shogun) Awful and useless    Horrible UI.
    AI is brain dead
    Poorly optimized.
    Navy is useless (Normal troops can spawn magical boats)
    No more guard button.
    Units don't fight in formation (Phalanx have to brake to attack etc)
    Stupid magical powers (flaming javelins etc)
    Arcadey useless effects (Glowing light on everything)
    Unit card that covers half my screen. (5 times bigger then shogun)
    Awful and useless generals and agents 3D models (Really awful)
    Civil war is pointless (Both choice mean nothing no color beam sry)
    1 year turn, no point caring for generals they die way to fast
    No more seasons
    and again
    Horrible UI
    Horrible UI
    Horrible UI
    Horrible UI    … Expand
  67. LairdEJM
    Sep 9, 2013
    3
    The critics must be watching trailers on this one!! The biggest problem for me right now is the ever present lag, even on my very capable gaming rig. It detracts from a game which I long to delve into, and frustrates me after short amounts of play. This along with the graphical bugs, such as popping and texture streaming make this game look very shoddy for the AAA title it so keenly clingsThe critics must be watching trailers on this one!! The biggest problem for me right now is the ever present lag, even on my very capable gaming rig. It detracts from a game which I long to delve into, and frustrates me after short amounts of play. This along with the graphical bugs, such as popping and texture streaming make this game look very shoddy for the AAA title it so keenly clings to. Mopping these issues up is ESSENTIAL for me to ever boost my score.

    Smaller irritations that I have noticed, albeit not game breaking for me personally are:
    The complete lack of managing to retain a formation during battle; troops just kind of smush together in a big conglomeration which sends the whole "tactics" bit out of the window.
    All units seem to route extremely easily and rapidly, meaning that battles are very very short.
    The bizarre interface which is counter-intuitive and makes me spend ages figuring out what a certain button actually builds, and what the construct actually does.
    Troops seem to run extremely quickly...as though they are all wearing roller blades.
    Diplomacy seems utterly pointless, (at least at my stage of play.) The same can be said of politics.
    I don't understand the household pool thing at all.

    These are the problems which spring to mind right now, although they keep on flooding in as I rethink.

    I give this game, perhaps confusingly to those who have read this, a 3. I believe (hope) that were the lag issues to be sorted, I could perhaps try and live with the other problems and irritations. And also, I honestly believe, that somewhere amongst this mess is a very good game with huge potential. Unfortunately however, in its present form, it is nowhere near the quality I would expect for my £30.

    Roll on the miracle patches.    … Expand
  68. titanictwist
    Sep 9, 2013
    4
    Rome Total War 2 could be a great game. Unfortunately the game becomes boring very fast. Why? Because your only opponent in the game is the AI, and the AI is about as smart as a baby. Playing a strategic game against a baby gets boring very fast.

    -On the campaign map the AI will barely ever attack you, and if it does it is usually not in a way that makes strategical sense (constantly    Rome Total War 2 could be a great game. Unfortunately the game becomes boring very fast. Why? Because your only opponent in the game is the AI, and the AI is about as smart as a baby. Playing a strategic game against a baby gets boring very fast.

    -On the campaign map the AI will barely ever attack you, and if it does it is usually not in a way that makes strategical sense (constantly sending 1 unit against your full stack).

    -In Field battles the AI is incredibly easy to beat. The only thing it cares about is the new Victory Points (bad feature). Therefore it uses the same strategy every battle of rushing straight at the Victory Point no matter how suicidal that is. You can win against armies 2-3 times your size without much effort.

    -Siege Battles are the worst as the AI doesn't even function on them. On defence the AI will stand around in one spot while you shoot it with arrows, You can win without losing a unit if you have enough ammo. On offence the AI will get stuck outside the walls, get stuck in their boats, and it doesn't attempt to capture gates or anything to let its troops stuck outside in.

    -Naval battles the AI actually can beat you. Only because your own ships rarely listen to your orders and often end up sitting around while the AI shoots them.

    If your a veteran of this series or are even decent at strategy games you will find even the hardest difficulty laughably easy. This is the worst AI of the series and therefore it is the worst game play of the series.    … Expand
  69. Norsa
    Sep 9, 2013
    2
    I give this a 2 due to the work that has gone into improving the battlemaps the campaign map looks pretty.

    1: Campaign map, its pretty yes. But there is nothing to do here. They have taken out most features from previous titles so you are only left with upgrading buildings in your cities and running your army from siege to siege. Close to no open field battles. 2: The battles have    I give this a 2 due to the work that has gone into improving the battlemaps the campaign map looks pretty.

    1: Campaign map, its pretty yes. But there is nothing to do here. They have taken out most features from previous titles so you are only left with upgrading buildings in your cities and running your army from siege to siege. Close to no open field battles.

    2: The battles have been changed so you dont have to spend alot of time fighting, its fast paced and you just need to blob your units to win every engagment. A normal battle is like this: 5-6 minutes to march your army (unless you fast forward) With maybe 2-3 minutes of fighting. 1 unit vs 1 unit will often be over in 30 seconds or less (if you forget to activate the magic abilities introduced into this game for whatever reason)

    3: UI is bad. Minimalistic and without any soul or immersion factor at all.

    4: Unitcards are ugly and often confusing as they often do not convey the information you need at a glance.

    5: AI is among the worst of any totalwar to date. The ai is often passive, wont attack your cities. And in battle will often stand passive while you shoot them to death from afar. (espesially bad in walled city sieges.) Other times they will bumrush your victory location. That means run trhough your army without trying to fight thus getting slaughtered.

    6: No family tree (at the same time as they have a politics system where such a feature would fit greatly. At present the important chars die right away due to 1year per turn)

    7: No seasons (this fantasy world has eternal summer. Though sometimes snow magically appear in some battles)

    8: Multiplayer broken. Out of sync all the time crashes that corrupt the autosaves.

    9: No fun multiplayer features. The ladder has 0 soul compared with shogun 2.

    10: There are navies in the game that you build for war. But if one of them dares to come near, you can spawn a free transport fleet for your army and that transport fleet is then able to single handedly kill most fleets in the game (even if they are high tier warships)

    I could go on and on. The game is just boring, there is nothing to do but fight small battles (mostly in cities) A complete grind, and most features are dumbed down/streamlined/simplified. It becomes more clear why they have gone in this direction when you hear the empty suits talking over the possibility to port the game for next gen consoles.

    Totwal war has sold its soul and the game suffers greatly for it.    … Expand
  70. Nathanshawn
    Sep 9, 2013
    1
    Worst Total War release yet. How can you possibly give this a 81/100? The AI is completely retarded. Optimization is horrible. The only good things that have improved over previous Total War games in the combined naval and land battles, and even that is wrecked by the glitches that happen.
  71. KunsM
    Sep 9, 2013
    1
    First off, I am a HUGE fan of the Total War franchise. The first Rome was my overall favorite game for several years when it came out. I cannot say the same for Rome 2.

    Game is huge failure. I can't really think of anything good about this game, so I'll focus on the bad. Features that existed in previous games are gone. They removed family tree and made city management very simply.    First off, I am a HUGE fan of the Total War franchise. The first Rome was my overall favorite game for several years when it came out. I cannot say the same for Rome 2.

    Game is huge failure. I can't really think of anything good about this game, so I'll focus on the bad. Features that existed in previous games are gone. They removed family tree and made city management very simply. Units now have ridiculous magical abilities. Map look huge but empty. Graphics way to cartonish. UI is awful.

    I am very disappointed.    … Expand
  72. Ciroc384
    Sep 9, 2013
    1
    Rome 2 is actually not a bad game for casual young player. But for me as dedicated player of the Total War series this is the greatest disappointment in gaming history. Graphics are nice, but gameplay lacks heart and soul. I would never thought I will write negative review for Rome 2. If this game was named differently and was not released by CA, I would rate it probably 5/10. But IRome 2 is actually not a bad game for casual young player. But for me as dedicated player of the Total War series this is the greatest disappointment in gaming history. Graphics are nice, but gameplay lacks heart and soul. I would never thought I will write negative review for Rome 2. If this game was named differently and was not released by CA, I would rate it probably 5/10. But I consider it also the biggest scam. 60$ for this is simply too much. Replayability is at zero … Expand
  73. Asvaldo
    Sep 9, 2013
    0
    Absolute Junk. Terrible.optimization, many bags. They didn't learn anything from Empire release. So to summarize: Graphics: bad and cartoony, UI: god awful, Gameplay: dumbed down comparing with first Rome.

    AVOID THIS GAME
  74. Ryansmithee
    Sep 9, 2013
    0
    A poor excuse for a game which I'm frankly shocked by. after playing 30 hours of this broken, incomplete game I'm surprised that they where able to charge money for this mess.

    -The AI in total war games has always been lacking but never to the point where factions will not engage you on the campaign map and will walk right up to your formations on the battle map and then run away    A poor excuse for a game which I'm frankly shocked by. after playing 30 hours of this broken, incomplete game I'm surprised that they where able to charge money for this mess.

    -The AI in total war games has always been lacking but never to the point where factions will not engage you on the campaign map and will walk right up to your formations on the battle map and then run away without any reason.

    -WARNING- do not even attempt a naval battle they are completely bugged (My Gran could code better AI) the ships will randomly chose to ram or to board depending on how the game is feeling.

    -WTF decision to add capture point on land battles which removes all tactics making you rush for the flag making it feel like a game of domination from COD

    -The game will rape your PC even on the lower settings. The lowest graphical setting look worse than the original total war which is shocking.

    -The game does not run smoothly at all, just panning the camera will look like a power point presentation

    -THE MAIN POINT why on Earth was there no public demo or beta to iron out these bugs in the first place, personally I feel as though CA and SEGA (SEGA (SCUM)) should have paid the 'per-orderors' of this game instead of us paying them.

    Also the lack of pre-launch content e.g. videos, previews and next to no details on the multiplayer which is by the way completely F*****.

    To concluded I have lost all faith in the total franchise which in my opinion was day light robbery of the fans money, shame on you for this shambles of a game.

    A FINAL MESSAGE TO THE DEVS-

    What where you thinking you fools!

    One does not simply release a game in this state!    … Expand
  75. CapnAwesome
    Sep 9, 2013
    8
    Despite the bugs, this is a very entertaining game. I've put 30+ hours into it already and I am enjoying it thoroughly. Optimization, AI, and hardware problems will probably be addressed by the weekly patches CA plans to release. I am disappointed with the state of the game CA release, but it is still very fun, even with my low FPS on the campaign map.
  76. Rigel86
    Sep 9, 2013
    0
    This is not what you do to hold your customers. I will not pre-purchase ANY game in the future, after this experience. CA, your board of directors should be held responsible for this you should not get a decent job in the future even if you escape CA...
  77. croninsdisease
    Sep 9, 2013
    2
    A completely watered down, stupified version of a classic series. This game has gone wrong in so many places for me personally. Nearly every aspect of Total War that I love is absent from this title. With patches it will be "playable" i'm sure, but it will never be a true total war game, stop trying to say otherwise. No functioning diplomacy. No family tree. Every turn is a year. AI isA completely watered down, stupified version of a classic series. This game has gone wrong in so many places for me personally. Nearly every aspect of Total War that I love is absent from this title. With patches it will be "playable" i'm sure, but it will never be a true total war game, stop trying to say otherwise. No functioning diplomacy. No family tree. Every turn is a year. AI is somehow more dumb than in previous titles, including Rome 1. The provincial system is atrocious and lacks explanation, tell what what these new "features" are without making us go through the obnoxious encyclopedia full of useless information. I could go on, if you're looking for a game that feels like total war, and looks good, get Shogun 2 if you haven't already. Otherwise, ignore this title for now ,at least until it's priced accordingly to the quality of the game. Thoroughly disappointed in the Creative Assembly. Thanks for making this title for people who don't play the series....… Expand
  78. ArcDeus
    Sep 9, 2013
    3
    Every thing's broken :
    - Performance
    - AI
    - UI
    - Economy
    - Battle
    - History
    - Soul

    This is both a failure in terms of development, a marketing lies and betrayal of values ​​and spirit.

    No interest.

    **** treason.
  79. kaibert
    Sep 9, 2013
    4
    Performance problems aside, this game gets a 4 out of 10 for gameplay at this time.

    I will not play this game until mods have fixed the glaring mistakes made by the developer team. Many features seem tailored to the casual crowd, apparently for monetary gain.

    There are many new strong features, but the current state of the game is a disgrace to loyal fans of the Total War series.
  80. logan0178
    Sep 9, 2013
    4
    There are significant number of bugs, performance problems and glitches that make this game difficult to enjoy.

    The battle AI is horrible. During defense battles they just sit there and stand their ground while your ranged units shoot them to death, and in offense battles they just make a beeline towards your capture point and ignore all other considerations even if it's a suicide    There are significant number of bugs, performance problems and glitches that make this game difficult to enjoy.

    The battle AI is horrible. During defense battles they just sit there and stand their ground while your ranged units shoot them to death, and in offense battles they just make a beeline towards your capture point and ignore all other considerations even if it's a suicide charge through your phalanx.

    Naval battles are poorly done and the boarding commands are not responsive. You have to continuously give commands to board for melee ships or they just get into close range and sit there.

    Amphibious battle AI when attacking tend to glitch out completely where one or a few characters in the army unit does not get off their ship and when this happens they cannot be attacked or take any other action so you end up having to wait out the full 60 minutes before the battle is over and they lose by default.

    Campaign map inexplicably has terrible fps performance and turn ends could take a long time even on a high end machine like mine. (16 gb ram, 2 gb graphics card, quad core top of the line intel cpu)

    The campaign AI is also passive and very ineffective and very rarely if ever fields even a full army. In higher difficulty levels it simply gains a cheating advantage in resources and unit stats rather than actually being smarter. It takes no time at all to gain an absolute advantage because no factions ever expands to enough territory to pose a threat once you've expanded past a few provinces.

    There are also various settings removed from modding like campaign_unit_multipler which will make player modding more difficult, but this is not calculated into my score since my review is only for the base game. I am only mentioning this as a side comment.

    Even with all these issues my score would've been higher if this was the first game in series or of the genre, but frankly many of these same bugs and design issues have been seen in every one of the past total war games and there's no excuse for them to release their game with these known issues without fixing them.

    Bottom line is, this game had great marketing and propaganda going for it but little to no testing based on the number of obvious bugs and glitches players run into in even the first hour of playing.

    This game is not worth getting at the current time. Perhaps in a few months once most of the bugs are fixed and it's on sale on steam with 60% off.    … Expand
  81. alex-kit
    Sep 9, 2013
    2
    This is Rome Total Mess. They managed to fail in all aspects of the game: strategy, tactics, even technical (which is probably the only aspect that can and will be fixed). It's so not fun and so disappointing! Do not expect epic tactical battles, TW has become just another arcade with quick-button-pressing 1-minute fights. Being a TW fun since the first(!) Shogun, I pre-ordered the game,This is Rome Total Mess. They managed to fail in all aspects of the game: strategy, tactics, even technical (which is probably the only aspect that can and will be fixed). It's so not fun and so disappointing! Do not expect epic tactical battles, TW has become just another arcade with quick-button-pressing 1-minute fights. Being a TW fun since the first(!) Shogun, I pre-ordered the game, and I feel stupid now for supporting the product that does not deserve it. Avoid buying it, and if you do buy it, do not complain you were not warned.… Expand
  82. daboke
    Sep 9, 2013
    3
    I've paid to be a beta tester with no voice.
    This 'game' is very VERY disappointing. It seems as though they have completely restructured their development team, bringing in a lot of youngsters with 'ideas' on how to 'improve' things... and I'm thinking their intent is to move towards console gaming. Total Shambles.
    1. Slow with no affinity to whoever you choose to be (i think my leader    I've paid to be a beta tester with no voice.
    This 'game' is very VERY disappointing. It seems as though they have completely restructured their development team, bringing in a lot of youngsters with 'ideas' on how to 'improve' things... and I'm thinking their intent is to move towards console gaming. Total Shambles.
    1. Slow with no affinity to whoever you choose to be (i think my leader died the only interesting thing that happened was one wife got kidnapped... don't even know her name. meh.)
    2. AI stupid no common sense and just awkward. (4 slingers took out 15 groups of tribesmen without taking a hit; they don't want to trade even though it's good for everyone; they WILL trade but only if you give them 80% of your money, bartering can bring this down to 70% but not worth it. Trying to get military access just so you can walk through a tiny part of their land to take over someone else is pointless. Best off just making war with them too.
    3. Tech tree is boring, time consuming (split across 6 pointless pages) and doesn't really have much affect.
    4. Battles are so easy even on Legendary. No excitement at all. Less said about naval battles the better.
    5. General limitations, household is slightly interesting but they're all drowning in a pool.,
    6. No more micromanaging towns everything is dumped together. Try sorting out dissatisfaction...? forget it.
    Lots more... not even started with bugs.....

    I paid money to be a tester and didn't get any dlc. I will not be purchasing anything else from CA until I get a personal apology but I bet they would screw that up.    … Expand
  83. VideoDead
    Sep 9, 2013
    5
    I'm not going to go into all the other stuff other reviewers have gone into (awful graphical optimization, terrible A.I.), but rather some seemingly small details which have annoyed me a great deal.
    1 Victory points in open battles. The very thing that prompted me to come and write this review scenario: i had a large force consisting mainly of chariots, got ambushed by a much larger    I'm not going to go into all the other stuff other reviewers have gone into (awful graphical optimization, terrible A.I.), but rather some seemingly small details which have annoyed me a great deal.
    1 Victory points in open battles. The very thing that prompted me to come and write this review scenario: i had a large force consisting mainly of chariots, got ambushed by a much larger force of enemies consisting mainly of spears. I retreat, they chase, giving me no option but to fight. Battleplan: give them the run-around pelting them with javelins (this is the sort of thing that would've worked in any previous TW game). Got into the battle and lo and behold, a victory location! Thus, the enemy ran all his spears into the victory location, sat there for 50 seconds and won a "decisive victory" resulting in the complete annihilation of my army.
    2 If you attack a port settlement from the sea you cannot disembark your troops onto that city's wharfs and jetties. This just seems completely illogical, say no more!
    3 Why can't i shoot arrows at troops on boats waiting to disembark? Another battle i lost was due to the enemy's boats getting tangled up thusly stuck forever while my vast amount of archers sat 20 feet away on land unable to shoot them (i play unlimited battle time btw so i couldn't wait it out)
    4 Troops just seem to die very quickly and don't hold their formation and phalanxes and shield-walls are useless. It makes it hard to micro-manage when you can't take your eyes off a unit for more than 5 seconds in case they're completely wiped out. Why isn't there a "guard" button like there has ALWAYS been in TW?
    5 Interesting units, where are they? I remember Rome TW 1 having flaming pigs and head hurlers. And why aren't my general's elephants armoured like they are on the unit card?
    6 Diplomacy is just cack and i don't see the point. No-one wants to trade, even factions that are apparently my best-mates, so i just don't bother.

    Other than those negatives i'm not going to judge the game too harshly as i've always found TW games tend to grow on you after you give them a chance, especially the interface (still not sure about it though).

    I'll give it a 5 out of 10, but without all the stuff i've mentioned plus all the other stuff you'll read about in many negative reviews, i'd probably give it a 9 out of 10    … Expand
  84. saviwise
    Sep 9, 2013
    1
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. A complete and utter disappointment after 35 hours play (i.e. the equivalent of a working week)

    The good: Interesting province idea, big map, many factions, the new stance system works ok.

    The not so good: Awful AI, boring graphics (not like the trailers), unit types play the same, family tree removed and marriage options not properly implemented, over-powered free transport ships, flawed and limited tech and build trees, implementation of the province vs city idea is abysmal (you can build a maximum of five buildings in Rome), battles resemble the WWE Royal Rumbles but with more garish costumes, different agent action types pointless, generals die after 20 turns, no seasons or winter weather, random attrition travelling on the map, no roads, no buildable walls or defenses in towns, HORRIBLE UI, units have magic powers that can be spammed indefinitely (but can't they stay in formation), formation movement buttons removed from battle map, Varus give me back my guard button, legionary fire at will button and defensive pilum removed, testudo doesn't work, phalanx formation for the Greeks doesn't work, units run at 40mph, battles over in 4 minutes (big ones), few videos in game those that appear are random, random politics and events outside of the player's influence, co-op campaign doesn't work, diplomacy doesn't work, single player campaign doesn't work no one will attack you even on hard very hard, over simplified and boring economic system, slow-opening encyclopedia (web pages load faster), poorly implemented mouse over information, poorly implemented general system reduces you to few big armies but the AI pointlessly throws a multitude of tiny armies at your cities, horrible massive unit cards, unattractive icons and unit card images, lacks the historic polish and informational depth of the previous games .

    Apparently many people are also experiencing technical issues. Doesn't support SLI (or Crossfire so I've read) either.

    I could go on. I really wish I hadn't pre-ordered this game. I know people who took time off work to play this this week. Creative Labs, EA, Sega Shame on you.    … Expand
  85. kalilord
    Sep 9, 2013
    8
    After 50 hrs of gameplay, I can tell this game has immense potential, it was released way too early but I know from past TW games that patching and the modding community will make it EPIC.

    I for one really do not mind paying to get in on Beta testing, considering I will be playing this for a very long time.
  86. Waclaw
    Sep 9, 2013
    3
    I don't really know where to start this... I'm about 20 hours into the game and I have to say that this game is decent, but is far from being a decent product.

    1) Poor optimization this will get fixed eventually, but it's strange that the game has set ittself to ultra on my machine which I upgraded for some upcoming releases and THEN I have to revert that manually to very high and    I don't really know where to start this... I'm about 20 hours into the game and I have to say that this game is decent, but is far from being a decent product.

    1) Poor optimization this will get fixed eventually, but it's strange that the game has set ittself to ultra on my machine which I upgraded for some upcoming releases and THEN I have to revert that manually to very high and still get the ocasional lags when fire efects come in. I try to ignore the fact that the game looks ugly atm...

    2) Naval battles are broken they just are. Remember all those fancy videos from the devs where 2 fleets clashed: raming, boarding and whatever else was there? Well, it's all on youtube but not in the game.

    3) UI very confusing and after my 20 sth hours of playing I still have problems with getting used to it. It actually looks like a port of a tablet made game too little and with a very unfriendly look.

    4) AI as much as it pains me to say this... the battle AI completely sucks. If the auto calculator tells you you will loose and be left with 20-30% of troops, it means that you can win with 75% of your mob alive. I mean, I do understand that training and morale play a huge role even in modern battlefields but beating 4 full armies (20 units each) of bronze/silver experience with one army of gold lvl units is absurd. Unless they fix this, it's a zerg game deploy as close to the enemy and start slaughtering them.

    5)Victory points an idea that is correct for multiplayer battles and forces the side that can be passive to actually move. But in singleplayer, their placement in many battles (especially sieges) is a misunderstanding and leads to the AI trying to rush them no matter the cost, and if they're defending they seem to ignore them until you start taking over...

    I could go on about little stuff like crappy looking unit cards (which still tend to confuse me at times...), quest glitches the fact that most "hero" characters that are now essential to having an army are ALWAYS 40 years old when you take them and few manage to live to see 65 which means that getting a commander to a decent lvl will usually result in a frustrating cinematic of his death "from natural causes".

    I'm disapointed, and recomend all fans who still haven't gotten it to stay away untill all major issues are patched. Newcomers can add a point to my score, but should stay away as well. Just wait for a Christmas when it's sold 30% cheaper.    … Expand
  87. bartd
    Sep 9, 2013
    4
    I waited for this game to long not to play it and all i have experienced is a huge disappointment!

    The only thing improved is soldiers behavior(they raise shields and fall on the knees s but apart from that it is rubbish... game looks like it`s not finished. i feel like playing Rome 1 again :) Creative Listen: This is strategy game! Focus on strategy than! AI ,unit    I waited for this game to long not to play it and all i have experienced is a huge disappointment!

    The only thing improved is soldiers behavior(they raise shields and fall on the knees s but apart from that it is rubbish...

    game looks like it`s not finished. i feel like playing Rome 1 again :)

    Creative Listen:

    This is strategy game! Focus on strategy than! AI ,unit "intelligence", diplomacy and battle! stop wasting your time on pointless birds, raindrops on the screen, grass and trees and other crap...

    by the way ships behave like bricks!

    i could go on but i think i have made my point!    … Expand
  88. Kexxar
    Sep 9, 2013
    3
    Unfortunately a huge disappointment for me.
    The graphics are good, but not great. At least, not what I expected.
    Poor optimization. Long loading times and waiting for your next turn really takes all the fun out of this game. And on top of all that, the game even has a few annoying bugs. I really hope that all this will get fixed with a few patches, and maybe an expansion, but until    Unfortunately a huge disappointment for me.
    The graphics are good, but not great. At least, not what I expected.
    Poor optimization. Long loading times and waiting for your next turn really takes all the fun out of this game.
    And on top of all that, the game even has a few annoying bugs.
    I really hope that all this will get fixed with a few patches, and maybe an expansion, but until then, I'll just stick to Shogun 2.    … Expand
  89. septimus
    Sep 9, 2013
    0
    Doesn't work. Games that cannot be played upon launch are nonfunctioning products, and receive a zero: not buying the game and not being able to play it is actually more fun than buying the game and not being able to play it.
  90. Portos_89
    Sep 9, 2013
    2
    There are far many games worse than Rome II, but $60 for this is absolutely a travesty. Graphics not great, AI pretty retarded, user interface looks horrible and when playing you know that it's not worth even $30 so it makes the game that much worse. Everyone has said enough already, but don't buy this game now.
  91. Gfresh
    Sep 9, 2013
    2
    I for one am so disappointed with this release, how any one marks this game up is beyond me, where do i start, for one there are about 100 factions, in my game egypt and carthage were destroyed by some desert raiding parties after 10 turns and now all i have to fight are tiny tribal factions so the challenge has completey gone, the fps is so bad i can't bare to attack settlements so justI for one am so disappointed with this release, how any one marks this game up is beyond me, where do i start, for one there are about 100 factions, in my game egypt and carthage were destroyed by some desert raiding parties after 10 turns and now all i have to fight are tiny tribal factions so the challenge has completey gone, the fps is so bad i can't bare to attack settlements so just autoresolve most battles, i have no idea who is even the leader of my faction half the time, naval battles develop into farce and are impossible to control when you have more than 5 ships. The battle speed is horrendously fast and the flag is probably the most ridiculous feature i have seen in a computer game, gone are the days where you could fight with a small army and lead them to victory against overwelming odds due to clever manipulation of the terrain aka MTW2. The units are boring, graphics and textures look worse than MTW2 and RTW, how can that be possible!! For some reason land armies can move the same distance as ships in open ocean??? I was so excited for this game and its a complete let down, i adore this series i even liked ETW and STW2 but this is a complete let down, i'll keep plugging away hoping for fixes but only half my issues are surrounding AI and FPS the rest is surrounding the diabolical "improvements" they made wich i'm sure there far to stubborn to remove or amend so i think i might have to just chalk this up as a waste of time, money and excitement.… Expand
  92. cdrwrecorders
    Sep 9, 2013
    0
    this game is a mess. it is worse than Empire. do we pay 60$ to be beta testers? this game has no AI. CA and SEGA (i don't care is more to blame) are doing same thing over and over again. not only there is no challenging AI (oh sorry there is... buff to the stats. because who would want challenging behavior from computer opponent) but AI can do only basic stuff. no sorry, it can't do eventhis game is a mess. it is worse than Empire. do we pay 60$ to be beta testers? this game has no AI. CA and SEGA (i don't care is more to blame) are doing same thing over and over again. not only there is no challenging AI (oh sorry there is... buff to the stats. because who would want challenging behavior from computer opponent) but AI can do only basic stuff. no sorry, it can't do even that because it is buggy.
    they fix only extreme cases of retardness of AI and bugs. but they never make AI "good". community and their mods do that. vanilla TW are frustrating for people that play mainly strategies. even CA assumes that modders will do their work for them and they made that their business model. they are release framework for game. and they make beta tester from consumers. they got away with this to many time. they used all of my good will at this point.    … Expand
  93. tomezom
    Sep 9, 2013
    1
    The worst gaming purchase I've ever made. Besides terrible beta state, fails to reach the bar raised by its predecessors in the art direction, music, and mechanics. It's lame AI, coupled with a purposedly dumbed down UI and city management (for console testing), linear gameplay and poor multiplayer makes this an incredible disappointing experience.
  94. x8igh7
    Sep 9, 2013
    4
    I've own, and have played, every Total War game but this one has been a major disappointment. I paid for a top flight game, and I got RTS simulator for dummies. Where is my family tree? I think there actually is one somewhere in this mind boggling UI...

    AH HA! After playing for 10 hours as the Germanic Tribes I finally found the tab that showed my faction and leader. I'm not really    I've own, and have played, every Total War game but this one has been a major disappointment. I paid for a top flight game, and I got RTS simulator for dummies. Where is my family tree? I think there actually is one somewhere in this mind boggling UI...

    AH HA! After playing for 10 hours as the Germanic Tribes I finally found the tab that showed my faction and leader. I'm not really sure what any of the numbers mean, or why I should care about my faction leader, after all I'm 10 hours in without even knowing he existed but I found it! Apparently there is a division between Elder Chiefs and Other Chiefs (very informative name, I know) and I need their favor. I don't know how to get that favor, or why I need it though. But, hey! At least the have the foundation of a system (which fully functioning in Rome 1), right? Ugh, wait, I forgot I paid $60 and this isn't a $10 indie game.

    Okay, lets do a little diplomacy. Oh, look, this faction next to me is friendly.. and we share the same blood! Sick, lets open a trade agreement... No? Wait, why? They have 80 approval of my faction, but they have a low chance of accepting a simple trade agreement that would benefit both of our factions. Hmm... Lost me on this one. By the way, I think you trade the stuff that your cities harvest such as Timber, Leather. But I can't find any information on this anywhere, and I have no idea what any of it means or does.

    Okay lets fight some battles! For the most part I can build the armies I want and have a little fun with the AI (though it gets quite repetitive). The graphics got a bit better with the patch, but it's still a bit underwhelming. I like the new provinces regions. I think that adds some cool depth and gets rid of the monotonous sieges at every city. However, I lose my generals about every other turn at this point because I get rushed by 5 enemy agents all trying to kill a single my leader, with no apparently way to counter this rush other than hope I can use my own agents (which are limited and spread across my armies and lands) to kill them during the next turn. (For the record, agents have always been my least favorite part of the series).

    All in all, a very disappointing release. I would need to withdraw my support for the series based on this showing. It's grown on me a bit since I've stumbled upon new features many hours into the game that seem to be hidden away, but I can't very well justify to anyone the $60 price tag based on the current state of the game.    … Expand
  95. kuatofkuat
    Sep 9, 2013
    0
    Game is simply unfinished and therefore totally unplayable.
    This is a worst Total War release ever.
    Disappointed to the point that I feel cheated and want to get a refund.
  96. ocelot1300
    Sep 9, 2013
    5
    This is an okay game with the potential to be a great game. Numerous UI and AI issues, lag and graphics issues, prevent it from being what it could be. To illustrate the point, let me give an example:

    I was defending a settlement against significantly superior forces, invading both by land and sea. I defeated the enemy forces. However, one group of enemy units was on a boat that got    This is an okay game with the potential to be a great game. Numerous UI and AI issues, lag and graphics issues, prevent it from being what it could be. To illustrate the point, let me give an example:

    I was defending a settlement against significantly superior forces, invading both by land and sea. I defeated the enemy forces. However, one group of enemy units was on a boat that got stuck, unable to land or retreat. Even though I shattered its morale, they were still counted as active combatants, and thus the game didn't conclude the battle. My options were to concede defeat (even though I had really won the battle), or wait for the 40+ minutes left on the timer to expire. I tried fast-forwarding the game, but due to lag it takes the same amount of time on fast-forward as regular speed. So in the end I decided to concede defeat, and lost the province--even though I had actually won the battle. That's what kills the enjoyment of this game.

    It should also be noted that I tried this game on three different computers. On one it worked with no problems, one I had to delete a folder in AppData to get it to run, and on the newest machine I still can't get it to work. It's not my responsibility to get the game to run, it's CA's.

    Like most CA games, it's not so great out of the box. Hopefully they'll patch the game, and modders will improve the game (by eliminating stupid things like the army cap), and then it will finally be a great game.    … Expand
  97. jojo1983
    Sep 9, 2013
    1
    I don't know why people give good reviews. There is no depth in gaming experience. After a couple hours of playing its bored. My views are:

    Good: - nice campaign map, many factions - province system is better - good music Negatives: - Terrible campaign and battle AI, but that is fixable - no family tree and seasons; characters are quiekly dead (after 30 turns) and you have no    I don't know why people give good reviews. There is no depth in gaming experience. After a couple hours of playing its bored. My views are:

    Good:
    - nice campaign map, many factions
    - province system is better
    - good music

    Negatives:
    - Terrible campaign and battle AI, but that is fixable
    - no family tree and seasons; characters are quiekly dead (after 30 turns) and you have no feeling with a person, there are not enough marriages. When I play with pontus Mithridates is soon dead and there is no heir, strange in the Mithridates dynasty Is the same with other dynasties. The gravitas is not a additional value but a step backwards.
    - the army system, when a army is demolised you can recruit the same army again included the positive traits and good troops. It's more spamming of armys then a good gaming experience
    - the flags in open battles, but that it's fixable
    - the fast battles, avergae 5 minutes 1 minute active battles and 4 minutes when the troops met each other

    I hope that Sega or CA listen to this views, its also on the forums. Roma total war 2 has potentialin the future but in this form its boring to play.    … Expand
  98. atticuswiig
    Sep 9, 2013
    2
    With Rome: Total War being the game I've sunk most hours into ever, I was awaiting Total War: Rome 2 with great anticipation. This was going to be the game I would spend the long Norwegian winter-evenings with in the coming months, conquering Europe as romans, greeks, germans and parthians.

    I could go on for hours describing everyting that's wrong with TW:R2, but all I really need to    With Rome: Total War being the game I've sunk most hours into ever, I was awaiting Total War: Rome 2 with great anticipation. This was going to be the game I would spend the long Norwegian winter-evenings with in the coming months, conquering Europe as romans, greeks, germans and parthians.

    I could go on for hours describing everyting that's wrong with TW:R2, but all I really need to say is this: It broke my heart. Bugs and poor optimization can be fixed over time, but the core of this game is a soulless and halfhearted attempt to make Total War a more streamlined experience. There's no emotional connection, no reason to continue playing. All I feel is bitter disappointment at the thought of what could have been the greatest game ever.

    I wasted 10 hours with you, but now you're uninstalled and will stay that way until (hopefully) modders will be able to save you from the grave. Such a shame. So sad     … Expand
  99. Syferot
    Sep 9, 2013
    3
    list of disadvantages:
    1) terrible optimization.
    2 )awkward interface. 3) lack of strategy and tactics in battle because of the speed of units (cavalry barely escapes from slingers) 4) faceless generals and lack of family tree: ( 5) Commanders are dying like flies! 6) You can burn torches forged gate cities! 7) terribly stupid AI. 8) transport ships from the air (why do we need a    list of disadvantages:
    1) terrible optimization.
    2 )awkward interface.
    3) lack of strategy and tactics in battle because of the speed of units (cavalry barely escapes from slingers)
    4) faceless generals and lack of family tree: (
    5) Commanders are dying like flies!
    6) You can burn torches forged gate cities!
    7) terribly stupid AI.
    8) transport ships from the air (why do we need a fleet?)
    9) animation of the battle between the units into a landfill just dying soldiers. (in-game animation SHOGUN 2 fights between units was excellent, both for strategic games)
    10) even at the highest level of complexity can not think several moves ahead, it is enough to have a strong army...    … Expand
  100. Spindrift1
    Sep 9, 2013
    0
    How have they come to release this game? I, like so many here have actually gone to the bother of creating a metacritic account in order to vent.

    I've pre-ordered games in the past and being mildly disappointed but with Rome II Total Bore I'm actually seriously pissed off. I've given hard earned cash for this? I could accept the slightly crap graphics (certainly not living up to the    How have they come to release this game? I, like so many here have actually gone to the bother of creating a metacritic account in order to vent.

    I've pre-ordered games in the past and being mildly disappointed but with Rome II Total Bore I'm actually seriously pissed off. I've given hard earned cash for this? I could accept the slightly crap graphics (certainly not living up to the hype), and maybe the slow game pace on the strategic map if the outcome was worth the wait. But it's like playing against a 5 year old at chess, it would be mildly diverting if they were my child, but they aren't and when they repeatedly drop my nicely crafted pieces on the floor, or refuse to even take their turn I start to tire.

    I'm not sure I can be bothered to even keep trying the patches as they're released because in its current state even if it ran smoothly, and the AI was half decent, the game just lacks depth. I feel no connection to my empire, or my generals. Couldn't really give a cr@p if they all die. Of course they won't because the enemy will just stand still on the battle field while I dispatch them.

    Still I've gained new found respect for the reviewers that actually noticed this game is a complete joke:
    http://www.quartertothree.com/fp/2013/09/06/creative-assembly-fiddles-rome-ii-loads/ Not sure what version of the game all the other professional reviewers were playing, it certainly isn't the one they've released to the public.

    I'd advise people to give this at least 6 months, then check up on metacritic to see if user reviews are starting to improve. In the meantime, try the excellent Europa Universalis IV (http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/europa-universalis-iv) which lacks the battles of Rome II but is a sparkling diamond next to the rough cut pyrite that is Rome II. Also, if you want to try a game that actually has an AI then try the brilliant AI War Fleet Command (http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/ai-war-fleet-command), a game that is similar (in setting at least) to Sins of the Solar Empire. While it lacks the graphical finesse, the game-play is brilliant and the AI is properly challenging.    … Expand
Page:

Awards & Rankings

4
#4 Most Discussed PC Game of 2013
7
#7 Most Shared PC Game of 2013

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
76

Generally favorable reviews - based on 71 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 49 out of 71
  2. Mixed: 15 out of 71
  3. Negative: 7 out of 71
  1. Worth Playing
    Nov 18, 2013
    74
    The game is far less polished than Shogun 2, and a few more patches will help, but Rome II is still a flawed game that is underwhelming when compared to previous titles in the franchise.
    Read full review
  2. PCGamesN
    Nov 6, 2013
    70
    And here’s the rub: every addition, every sub-system, every mechanic is subservient to War. War is what Total War is really about. Everything else not directly related to conflict comes across as ancillary. Rome II is a game for warmongers, on both the campaign map and, obviously, on the battlefield. When peace is happening, nothing is happening. When war is happening, Rome comes alive.
    Read full review
  3. PC PowerPlay
    Oct 28, 2013
    40
    If you will play literally anything featuring Total War and Rome in the same title and don't value your time, this is for you. [Nov 2013, p.80]
See all critic reviews »